“Nice catch, Hero.”
Dylan came down right after. He landed on his feet, allowed himself to collapse under his own momentum, and rolled through the landing. He hopped back to his feet and Aoife pulled out of my arms.
“Show off,” I said.
“Jealous,” he replied.
“Let’s get out of here,” Aoife said, grabbing my arm and pulling me into a run down the street.
22
O’CONNOR’S HOMETOWN GROCER
We moved as fast as we could while keeping an eye out for the possibility of pursuit. It took a few heated moments of quiet arguing to figure out where we were heading. The argument was mostly between Dylan and Aoife. He wanted to go to the police to report the break in, she wanted to go to Mr. Minor’s so we could get my family and get out of town. I sat on the fence. I wanted to report everything to the police, but I knew they’d probably lock us up and have us evaluated for mental problems after raving about secret portals to other worlds, tree and lizard people. Magic-fueled metal dragons. Talking trees. Evil demon creatures. I’d lock us up, too.
I could almost get on board with getting my family and getting out of Dodge as quick as possible, but I didn’t want to put my mom and Aunt Stacy in danger. I had no clue how those things followed me to Aoife’s house and I didn’t want to do the same at Mr. Minor’s.
I wondered if I could borrow Dylan’s phone to call Aunt Stacy. I wondered if she’d believe me and leave with Mom. That was a long shot considering she thought I might have needed “help” before I disappeared. Even if I did somehow convince her, I doubted she would leave without me, anyway.
So, I fast-walked behind the two Connellys while they hissed their argument, which meant I was the lookout behind us. I tried to take that job seriously, but my mind kept wondering off on its own. Grabbing single thoughts was like trying to hold water in my hands for an extended period of time. I could for a while, but the thoughts would just leak out only to be replaced by new thoughts.
I looked down at my jeans and shoes—the same ones I had traipsed halfway across another world in just an hour or so ago. They were dirty and there was a hole in the left knee I hadn’t noticed before. I’d worn the same clothes for more than a week, I think.
I felt suddenly tired past my bones, down to the core of my very being. I couldn’t remember my last good sleep. I guessed it was probably when Seanna was still using magic to force us into it. Since Aoife had told her to stop, I’d only caught a few hours here and there, the last of which was a fitful, fevered sleep in Daresh’s dungeon. Or was it in the Delicia underground?
Either way, seeing myself in those same dirty clothes took some kind of toll on me. My muddy shoes felt suddenly pumped full of lead. Each step took more effort than the one before it. The last thing I remembered was the faint outline of the fox on the back of Aoife’s sweatshirt laughing at me.
***
“You weigh a ton.”
I blinked until my vision came into focus. Well, focus was a relative term. At least I could see. Somewhat. Dylan’s blurry face hovered over me.
“Apparently this is something you do regularly?” he said.
“What?” My mouth felt stuffed full of cotton.
“Pass out. Can’t take a little excitement?”
What was it with me waking up with Connellys waiting to insult me? I struggled to a sitting position and glanced around. I sat on a cold tile floor, surrounded by tall shelves full of canned food. The lights were off, but there was a small lantern on the floor beside us. “Where are we?”
“O’Connor’s.”
“The grocery store? Why?”
“You fainted. We were arguing what to do with you when Sis said those dudes were following us, so we came here. I have a key and code to the alarm.”
“I didn’t faint,” I said, pushing myself up straighter.
“What would you call it?”
“I passed out.”
“Semantics,” he said with a shrug.
“You’ve worked here for something like six months and you have a key and alarm code?”
“What can I say? They love me.” He grinned at me.
“I bet. Where’s Aoife?”
“Potty.” His face, already shadowed by the thin light, clouded over at the mention of his sister. “I think you really need to start telling me just where the hell you two have been the past week.”
“Yeah,” I said evasively, not willing to dive into it since I’d just as soon forget about it.
He stared at me, waiting.
“I’m hungry,” I said, turning to search the shelves for something to eat.
“Don’t start with that again,” Aoife said, walking down the aisle with arms full. “I got enough of your whining about food the past few days.”
“Hey, wait a minute,” Dylan said. “I agreed to let us hide from those people in the store, but I didn’t say we could just take whatever we wanted. That’s stealing.”
“Pay for it if you want. I get the feeling it isn’t going to matter much by morning.” Aoife glanced at me from under her eyelashes as she dumped her armload on the floor by the flashlight.
I could have hugged her. A cornucopia of food lay in front of me. There was everything from a few wrapped sandwiches from the deli, to fruit snacks, apples, crackers, cookies, and—though, I’m sure she grabbed them as a joke—a bag of jerky. I ignored her grin as I reached over the jerky to grab a sandwich. I unwrapped it and took a big bite. It was dry with only turkey and cheese, but it was the best thing I’d ever tasted.
Aoife picked up an apple and we sat eating while Dylan watched us. I could see the questions trying to form in his head. They ran across his eyes like a litter of puppies set loose. When he grabbed one, a half dozen more ran around just out of reach. He opened his mouth, closed it, looked over our dirty clothes and opened it again. A full ten seconds passed before he managed to form words.
“You two really need to tell me what’s going on.”
Aoife stopped mid-chew but said nothing.
“You were gone for nearly a week,” he said to her, “and you both smell like you washed with garlic and onions instead of soap.”
She swallowed the bits of apple, lifted her arm to sniff her armpit, grimaced, and nodded with a shrug, conceding the point to her brother.
“Were you in the woods?” he asked when we said nothing.
“You could say that,” I replied before shoving the sandwich into my mouth.
“Impromptu camping trip without gear or a change of clothes?” He wrinkled his nose. “Or soap.”
Aoife rolled her eyes and threw the apple core down the aisle.
“That’s awesome,” Dylan said. “I have to help clean this place, you know?”
“Just tell your boss a pack of Boogie Monsters was after us. He’ll understand.” She grabbed the box of Capri Sun, opened it, and grabbed one. Once the straw was in the box, she sucked the juice down and tossed the trash after the apple core.
Dylan watched it disappear down the dark aisle, his face tightening. Was Aoife purposely pushing his buttons?
Once I swallowed the dry sandwich, I downed a juice box of my own. I opted to stack the sandwich wrapper and empty box beside me. I could tell Dylan was on the edge of throttling somebody. If he blamed me for Aoife’s disappearance, I was the most likely candidate to end up with red handprints on my neck.
“So,” he said with a tight voice, “are you two going to tell me where you’ve been and who those guys were?”
Aoife cast a questioning glance at me. We could lie and tell him we had gone on an unplanned trip because we were tired of this town or whatever. We could tell him we were abducted by aliens. Come to think about it, that was just about what happened. We could have given him some fictitious account of little green men or tell him we’re both freaks of nature who ended up on another planet and just barely escaped with our lives. No matter what we told him, we were going to sound crazy.
I shrugged and took
the easy way out. I’d let her decide what to tell him. I grabbed the bag of jerky just to show her that her little joke wasn’t a big deal. I tore the top open and managed not to gag at the smell that wafted into my face. I pulled one out and took a bite, fighting the urge to spit it out as I stared at Aoife.
She smirked, shook her head, and turned to her brother. They stared at each other for a while like they were having some kind of internal telepathic conversation. After a moment, she shrugged and started talking.
“Okay, fine. You want to know? I’ll tell you,” she said.
Dylan rocked back in his sitting position. He didn’t like the tone she had taken. He knew as well as I did that he was about to get the biting sarcasm Aoife had become known for.
“Well, you see, Gaige here is a freak,” she snapped. “He can control a gateway to another world. Mhmm. And so, this alien tree came to Earth and talked him into following her to her world because he thinks with his crotch more than his head.”
I sighed and shook my head.
“And there were these little dinosaur bird things, a village of giant people who smelled like carrots, mountain lions on steroids, man-sized swamp lizards, minotaurs, and this is the shocker—people. Yeah. Imagine that. People. And the kicker is they were all trying to kill us. Every. Single. One. Of. Them.”
“What about Minotaur? Sholto? Tias?” I asked.
She threw a dirty look at me like the few who did try to help were insignificant compared to those who meant us more harm than good. “And I was kidnapped by a minotaur. Except, it wasn’t a minotaur but a minotaur’s incestuous cousin or something. And the Gaige’s alien tree girlfriend walked right into the arms of a psychopath and he threw us in a dungeon. That was a blast.”
Dylan let her rant. It was obvious Aoife’s story was not sinking in well, but at least the shadow over his face didn’t darken any further.
“But, the alien tree helped us escape because she needed us to help save her great tree mother in the sky or whatever. So, we rode in a freaking plane held together by rubber bands until a dragon snatched me out of my seat and Gaige and I went parachuting without a parachute. That was fun.
“Then we went to save the great tree mother in the sky and came home because Gaige was hungry. Except Gaige left the gate open, right? And now some crazy circus freaks are now coming to Earth.”
I held my tongue. I had closed the gateway, but there was no point arguing with her at that moment.
“So, here we are. Breaking and entering into your store so we can tell ghost stories over a campfire.” Aoife ended abruptly, folded her arms, and glared at her brother.
23
WHAT MAKES A HERO
What the hell?” Dylan said. “Have you lost your mind? What kind of crap is that? Did you two sit around and make that up believing anybody—I mean anybody—would believe it?”
I opened my mouth to corroborate the story, but Aoife cut me off before I could say anything.
“Right,” Aoife said. “Believe what you want. I don’t care. I’m going to do something about the garlic and onions.” She unfolded her legs and stood. Her brother moved to do the same, but she waved him off. “I’m not going to run off again, Dylan. I’m just going to the bathroom to wash up.”
He settled back to the floor and Aoife glanced at me before turning to walk down the aisle. I shot her brother a look before standing to follow, tossing the bag of jerky aside.
Aoife pulled a small flashlight from her pocket and flipped it on, lighting the way as we walked. I assumed she had acquired it in the same manner as the food. I followed her in silence as she turned down a different aisle labeled bath. She grabbed a stick of deodorant and shoved it at me before picking one out for herself. She nabbed a pack of washcloths, cheap razors, hair bands, and soap before leaving the aisle.
She led me to the back where the bathrooms were. She opened the women’s door and I stopped. She glanced back and rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on. It’s just a bathroom. You might have to sit if you need to pee, though.” She laughed and went inside.
I only hesitated a moment before following her. The room had three stalls and two sinks. It smelled of chemical flowers. Aoife was at the sink trying to prop the flashlight so it shone its light on her. When she couldn’t get it to stand up right, she handed it to me. We didn’t want to attract attention from outside the store, but the bathrooms had no windows. I wondered why we used the flashlight instead of just turning on the lights.
She pulled off her sweatshirt to reveal a black tank top underneath. She reached back to move the light in my hand so it reflected off the mirror above the sink and onto her. Her face wrinkled at the sight. She turned on the water and opened the pack of washcloths.
“So?” she said.
“So, what?”
She glanced at me through the mirror and shook her head. “So, what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know,” I said honestly.
“You should probably figure that out,” she said.
“I know,” I said. “I just have no idea what I’m supposed to do.”
She set a washcloth aside and leaned over to splash two handfuls of water on her face. As she straightened, water dripped off her face, but she didn’t seem to care if her shirt got wet. She probably figured, as dirty as it was, it would be an improvement.
“I really want to just get my mom and aunt and get out of here.”
She twisted her hair into a ponytail—a look of disgust on her face as her fingers got caught in the strains—and tied it up with one of the hair bands.
“But, I mean, I feel like maybe I’m responsible or something.”
Another quick glance at me. She soaped up the washcloth and started scrubbing at her face.
“I mean,” I ran a hand through my hair and wiped it on my jeans, “I’m not really responsible. Or, maybe I am. I don’t know. It was my stupid fault I followed Seanna like a little puppy on a leash.” I blew out an irritated breath.
Aoife lifted her chin and made a face. She rinsed the washcloth, soaped it again, and scrubbed at her neck and chest.
“I mean, maybe I should have been responsible. I didn’t ask for this whole Gatekeeper thing, but I have it. Kinda like a disease,” I added. “The gate is my responsibility, right? Whether I want it or not.”
She examined herself in the mirror before rinsing and soaping the washcloth again.
“Maybe I should have done more to seal the gate. I don’t know what else I could have done. It’s not like I have mountains of experience at this.”
She attacked each armpit in turn, scrubbing furiously at her skin.
“So, what do I do? Tuck tail and run? Call the police? Yeah, that’ll go over well. But, then again, I would be doing something. If they don’t believe me, that’s on them. Maybe I should call and just get out of here. They’ll find out soon enough that it wasn’t a hoax.”
Aoife splashed water on her neck and under her arms before grabbing a clean washcloth from the pack and wiping away the suds.
I sighed loudly. “I have to do something. Even if I tell the police or whoever, and by some miracle they believe me, then what? Could they stop those things from coming through? The only way to stop them is to shut the gate, right? I did that, but they opened it somehow. Maybe I could do something to keep it shut. Maybe there’s some kind of lock or something. I wonder if my dad knows.”
Aoife sniffed under her arms. Apparently satisfied, she opened the pack of razors and started shaving the stubble.
I felt my string of words slowly die as I watched her. Her arm, lifted over her head, looked thinner. She wasn’t as round around the middle and her face seemed slenderer. It was borderline gaunt with the dark circles under her eyes and her cheekbones more prominent than usual. The shadowy light didn’t help. It did things to her like dark emotions were living things that played across her face.
With a final swipe, she stopped moving and looked at me through the mirror and I realized I was staring at her.
I dropped my eyes to her newly smooth armpit, but quickly moved on to the dirty washcloths on the counter.
She lowered her arm and tossed the razor into the sink. “Are you still on that whole hero thing?”
“You don’t understand.” I cut the sentence off sharply and clenched my jaw.
“I don’t understand,” she said quietly before turning to face me. “You want to feel like you’re doing something worthwhile, right? You want to feel like the things you do really matter.”
“Well, yeah.” Frustration grew. I had tried to explain it to her before, but it always felt silly. I didn’t want to be like some superhero in a comic book. I didn’t want to have my name all over the news. I didn’t want to save a whole city from some kind of outbreak that turns everybody into zombies or something.
Truth told, though, I didn’t know exactly what it was I wanted.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but that was you who jumped from a plane to a dragon’s wing to save me, wasn’t it?” She took a step closer to me.
“Yeah, but—”
“And that was you who rushed into a fight to save a freaking tree even though the people it is so important to threw you into danger to save themselves, right?”
“I wouldn’t say—”
“And it was you who came after me when that bipedal cow carried me off, right?”
“Yeah, but Seanna—”
“No!” She was in my face in a flash. “No, it was not her. Don’t say her name in front of me again. Everything that happened was her fault. It was you who saved me over and over again.”
“You saved me more, though.”
“How?” She didn’t back away, but her stance relaxed—became less aggressive.
I thought about it. I came up with nothing. I couldn’t put the right words to the thought, but I believed it. Those words had come out on their own, but they meant something I believed in even if I couldn’t explain it. For whatever reason, Aoife had stuck with me and I had no doubt I wouldn’t have made it back to Earth without her.
The Gatekeeper Trilogy Page 47
